How odd, can’t say I’ve heard of that happening before

Do you sleep on your back, it’s proven back sleeping has a higher chance of lucid dreaming

I've had trouble sleeping for my entire adult life, but interesting that you mention it, I tore my rotator cuff a couple of years ago and it was like a year recovery and I had to learn to sleep on my back, which I never did before. I don't think I'd experimented with white noise before then, but like I said my sleeping was definitely fuked before then.

I have read that the VA is supposedly working on trying to find ways of treating it, as so many vets came back from Iraq and Afghanistan with tinnitus from the head injuries suffered from IEDs. I cannot imagine how bad it must be to have BOTH tinnitus, PTSD, as well as any other injuries from these close-in explosions, etc.

I also learned that tinnitus is not actually in your ears, but rather is a problem with the "wiring" between your ears and the auditory cortex in your brain.

Hearing loss like what you suffered on the flight line means the "cilia" in the ear were damaged and basically died. You have some hearing loss, and the frequencies you lost no longer make it to the brain, and the brain is wondering where those sounds are. In their absence, the brain is trying to compensate by "turning up the gain" and actually creating the missing frequencies. They say that, although this is not a fully accurate comparison, that it is not unlike "phantom pain" from a missing limb, which is also caused by the wiring of your brain and the lack of nerve impulses from the now missing limb which the brain is expecting but no longer receiving.

My tinnitus is horrible. Like sitting on a plane with a screaming baby in the adjoining seat during a long fight. In my case, the plane never lands, and the baby never stops.

The poster above named "northernlights7" in this thread has a lot of good advice on how to cope with it and make your life better. His is an excellent post.

The only thing we can hope for at this point is "habituation" where the brain's "plasticity" enables you to put it in the background so it is not so distracting and torturous. Hopefully, the VAs study and other research may come up with a treatment in your lifetime. In the meantime, useless audiologists will be happy to sell you a set of $5,000 hearing aids that play "white noise" in your ears, adding to the symphony of bad sounds that are already playing there. Gee thanks.

Good luck OP, I truly hope you can get relief, sleep better, and have a good quality of life. Thank you for your Air Force service also.

Oh dude, I know this guy. I use his method to prevent balding sometimes, it's basically just a scalp massage to get blood flowing in the head. Not sure about this one though, isn't fingering earholes a bad idea.

There's this method that works like fukn magic, but only for the short-term sadly:

Yeah, cover your ears with your palms and tap your neck. I tap lower than where this guy does.

There is another interesting method I'm aware of. You listen to a noise of some frequency and it makes the tinnitus go away for a while:
https://generalfuzz.net/acrn/
read the instructions and the linked stuff to learn more


I was in artillery in the army. I also had my earplug fall out multiple times in range.. I've got pretty bad ringing in my ears.
I sleep pretty okay though.

I know this all too well

My right ear is slightly deafer than my left and sometimes it does ring when it's real quiet. What's more disturbing is that if there is any white noise in the background while I am relaxed my right ear will have auditory hallucinations and it's like I can hear music being played. Sounds really muffled and quiet like if you were next door to a concert venue and can hear a rock band playing but can't make out the notes or lyrics, just a general rhythm.. was super creepy at first now I realize when it's bad if I just sleep on my right side and cover that ear with a pillow it's fine.

Yes. Go swimming. Try not to get stressed. It can get better over time.

Yeah I’ve had it since 2018; ENT specialist told me it was likely due to all the headphone use, so I cut down on those.
I got used to it, but I remember it was giving me some pretty bad anxiety at first. But then again, I was already dealing with anxiety when I first got it.

But like some others said, your brain will eventually get used to it and phase it out like any other daily house noises we hear all the time. ENT specialist also mentioned that to me.

Sometimes it gets so loud that I literally can't hear anything else. dead fukin srs.